Mike Patterson happy to be back at Eagles practice

Eagles DT Mike Patterson took a big step this week on his journey back from offseason brain surgery. For the first time all season, he practiced.

"It felt real good, man. I feel very excited," Patterson told reporters afterward. "I was kind of jittery, I would say, this morning but after getting into the swing of this and meetings and stuff, stuff goes away and [you] kind of take it in and everything's happy. I'm just happy to be out here."

It was only about a year and a few months ago that Patterson was diagnosed with an AVM on his brain, which had caused him to collapse with seizures at training camp. He would, however, go on to play in 2011 and elected to have surgery to fix the AVM after the year. That surgery involved doctors removing a part of his skull and he was unable to be cleared at the start of this season.

However, Patterson says he held out hope that he still would be able to play this year and now that doctors have cleared him to practice, the next step is getting in football shape.

"I'm not in the rotation right now, so like I said, they're just going to take it slow," he said. "We're going to see how things work out. The big man [head coach Andy Reid], he's just not in a rush to get me out there and risk anything. So, [they're] just kind of looking at me. I'm just happy to be out there running around."

"Just got to take it one day at a time and just wait patiently until I get back on that real field."